Photo @chrislawton

STAGES

All too often and too easily

We look back at the

So called mistakes

We have made in the past

We see only one side ours

There are limitless things

We could have done differently

It is our fault all of it

The other side is important

But clouded by us

The whole idea of chance

Circumstance intention

The billions of things that happen

To make each moment of our lives

Somehow left out of the calculations

By us

It is all our doing we are at the center

If this vast whirling disk of songs

Blaring out from the decades of our lives

Stories about loves gained and lost

Our travels over the up and down roads

Already built by others unchangeable by us

Choices what was offered accepted

Refused shunned scorned by them

Those seeking what they want alone

Not caring for our well being

Just results rewards material

Givers and takers

It is the way things are

Not only the way we are

We can only arrange the pieces

As best we can

The next move is up to them

And they play to win

What we miss is this

These are stages in our lives

Everyone goes through the same ones

At different speeds intensities

Ways admitting different realities

Defining things in their own ways

But all the same stages

We are all tumbling through

We must live them to live life

The true value is in who I am and remain

That the only judgement

With value